Monty Python Scripts

Walk-on Part in Sketch / Bank Robber (Lingerie Shop)

The cast:

ROBBER

John Cleese

ASSISTANT

Eric Idle

MAN

Michael Palin

WIFE

Terry Jones

The sketch:

(Lingerie shop set. Assistant standing waiting behind counter.
At the side the robber also stands waiting. They hum to themselves
and waste time, looking at wristwatches, this takes about fifteen
seconds. Cut to a letter on BBC stationery. The camera pulls back to
show a grotty little man reading the letter and sitting at a
breakfast table in a small kitchen. His wife is busying herself in
wifelike activities.)

Man: Ooh. Ooh.

Wife: Oh, what is it dear?

Man: It's from the BBC. They want to know if I want to he
in a sketch on telly.

Wife: Oooh. That's nice.

Man: What? It's acting innit?

Wife: Yes.

Man: Well I'm a plumber. I can't act.

Wife: Oh, you never know till you try. Look at Mrs.
Brando's son next door. He was mending the fridge when they came and
asked him to be the Wild One. What do they want you to do?

Man: Well, they just want me to stand at a counter, and
when the sketch starts I go out.

Wife: Oh, that sounds nice. It's what they call a walk-on.

Man: Walk-on? That's a walk-off, that's what this is.

(Cut to lingerie shop; assistant and robber still hanging
around waiting. A few seconds of this. Floor manager walks on.)

Robber:(quietly) Well, where is he, George?

Floor Manager: I don't know, he should have been here
hours ago.

Robber: He bloody should have been.

(Cut back to grotty kitchen).

Wife: Well what else does it say?

Man: It just says 'We would like you to be in a sketch.
You are standing at a counter. When the sketch starts you go off.
Yours faithfully, Lord Hill.'

Wife: Oh well, you'd better be off then.

Man: Yeah, well, what about the cat?

Wife: Oh I'll look after the cat. Goodness me, Mrs.
Newman's eldest never worried about the cat when he went off to do
'The Sweet Bird of Youth'.

Man: All right then, all right. Bye. Bye dear.

Wife: Bye bye, and mind you don't get seduced.

(Man leaves, wife stands for a moment, then...)

Wife: Oh, it'll make a change from plumbing. Dad! Franks
got a television part.

(She turns on the TV set. On the TV comes the picture of the
assistant and tile robber and floor manager waiting in the lingerie
shop. After a second or two a man is brought in and introduced to
floor manager, who positions him and cues him. The man walks out.)